The Find
I got really luck with these gems. As part of a large pile of beautifully weathered wood boards with flaking green and white paint, I couldn’t imagine letting these beauties rot in a dump. Just look at that texture!
The Build
I love boxes. They are beautiful, functional and easy to make.
There are a bunch of different ways to construct a box, but for this one I used the existing board size to dictate my dimensions and:
- Simply cut the base from the wide board square (5.5″ x 5.5″)
- Then cut two sides from the smaller boards the same length as the base
- And finished my cuts for the other two sides by measuring the remaining opening width
- Finally nailing it all together with a brad nailer
The biggest bummer about cutting weathered boards when you want to keep that weathered look is you always see the clean cut edges.
So I gave the whole box a quick sanding with a hand sander and tried to scuff up the clean edges a bit.
To add a little weathered uniformity, I also dry brushed some white paint to each side then scuffed it up with some sandpaper.
That’s it. I finished this project by handing it over to the wife as an unexpected gift, I collected my brownie points and she promptly jammed some decorative flowers in it.
What's AlleyLux?
AlleyLux is a passion project started by me, Mike Alonzo. I've always struggled with waste and even flirted with hoarding. There is just so much usable material discarded everyday, that I figured I would try and do something with it. I explore my neighborhood alleys liberating junk, or as I like to call it, potential, in an effort to give it new life.
If you're interested in getting an AlleyLux original or learning more join us or drop me an email at hi.alleylux@gmail.com
